CannaCommunity

Stone Cold Lies

Five myths (illusions) are being repeated over & over in the mainstream media. Ask yourself: Why do we hear these same stone cold lies? Must be willful ignorance or intentional deception. Smoke and mirrors. This is beginning to irritate me just a little bit after 30 or 40 years. Lets take these myths in order.

Number One: Cannabis potency is "so much stronger than it used to be". Really? This is Nonsense. It is a little bit like complaining that vodka is 40% while whiskey is 35% and beer is 7%. Cannabis has varied from very low THC levels to quite high THC levels for million of years. The overall historical average has tended to be lower yet the Dutch government shows a consistent range for a decade. It varies. In my experience, the real modifying factor here is that both medical & social cannabis breeding has brought out higher THC strains. This is just modern selection & breeding. Smart business too - Very Popular with customers! (Quality drives any market) A study conducted by the Trimbos Institute and commissioned by the Dutch Health Ministry showed that, in 2012, the average level of THC was 13,5%. This is a relatively large decline from 2011's average percentage of 15,5%. It involved analyzing cannabis purchased in 48 of the Netherlands' 651 coffee shops. A relatively small sampling considering the hundreds of strains available worldwide.

Number Two: Cannabis contains over 400 chemicals. Double speak! So what? Coffee contains 1,500 chemicals. Only 21 of those chemicals have actually been tested on animals and 16 of these cause cancer in rodents. Yet, coffee remains perfectly legal and is generally considered fairly safe. Rat poison contains only 30 chemicals. There are 483 chemicals in marijuana, but only 75 of them are unique to the Cannabis plant - these are called cannabinoids. Do your own research. This myth is used to insinuate that "toxic" chemicals or cancerous (smoke) by-products are contained in cannabis.

Number Three: Cannabis needs to be "studied" more because "There is no research". "Cannabis has no therapeutic value." Balderdash! Why on earth do they keep saying this rubbish? Can't they read? Apparently not. Here's a list of 15,000+ studies collected by Granny Storm. No, I didn't count them all and I haven't finished reading all of them yet, either. None of the medical tests currently used to detect brain damage in humans have found harm from cannabis, even from long-term high-dosage use. This collection is keeping some friends of mine really really busy.

Number Four: Cannabis "impairs driving like alcohol". Horsefeathers! This one gets a lot of traction in the media. I fully agree, impaired driving IS dangerous…. no matter what you are impaired with: Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, lack of sleep, food, cannabis, cell phones… whatever. Simple answer. If you're not functioning: Don't drive. It's way more fun to have someone else drive. There's a joke, "Smokin' weed? Nothing straightens you up faster than a cop driving by". The science does not support the hysteria. We have a driving study from 1993 ~ and I quote: "Drivers under the influence of marijuana retain insight in their performance and will compensate where they can, for example, by slowing down or increasing effort. As a consequence, THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small."

Number Five: Cannabis and "hemp" are 'cousins' or magically "different" somehow. Preposterous! More double speak. So-called "hemp" was bred ONLY for low THC during the 1970's in France. Cannabaceae is well defined in scientific literature & taxonomy. The cannabis family & sub-species are distinct and include: Sativa (Latin for cultivated), Indica (Latin for "Indian") and Ruderallis (wild from Siberia). These sub species ALL breed together. Cannabis does not, for example, breed with it's cousin, Humulus (hops) at all, ever. Newer, current research indicates that the so-called "hemp" strains are more genetically related to the Indica segment of the species - rather than the Sativa strains cultivated for fiber & seed in other parts of the world. Selective breeding has developed a range from broad leafed "Indica" strains used historically for food & sacrament to taller, narrow leafed "Sativa" strains for rope & clothing. In other words, the Indica "drug" strain subspecies is world dominant. A recent archeological discovery in Taiwan shows cannabis use 35,000 years ago. This archeological evidence pushes cannabis use back well beyond the earlier records of 12,000 years ago. Doesn't look like our ancestors were fooled by prohibition at all, either.